The Stony Brook men’s basketball team battled back throughout the second half, but was unable to advance past Albany, falling 63-56 in the America East Conference semifinals Monday night at Island Federal Credit Union Arena. After a tight first half, Albany pulled away in the second. The Seawolves got back within two on multiple occasions, but could not overcome the Great Danes. Stony Brook sits at 18-13 on the year while Albany moves to 21-12.
Boals’ Reaction
“I’m really proud of our guys’ effort, I thought we really battled and competed like we have all year long,” said head coach Jeff Boals. “We just came up short tonight. I thought we had really good looks, but in a close game like this, every shot, turnover, rebound counts and they made a couple more plays than we did.
Highlights
- Senior Lucas Woodhouse (Greenlawn, NY.) got the Seawolves going with a quick three for the second straight game.
- The two teams traded buckets in the early minutes with neither team leading by more than a possession until the final minute of the half.
- Albany used a 12-2 run to close out the first and head into the break with an eight-point lead after five ties and eight lead changes in the opening period.
- Junior Roland Nyama (Frankfurt, Germany) seemed to take back the momentum, scoring in the first nine seconds of the new half. Junior Junior Saintel (Mays Landing, NJ) threw down a lob from Woodhouse on the next possession to keep the energy in Stony Brook’s corner.
- A technical foul on the Stony Brook bench awarded the Great Danes five quick points after a pair of free throws were followed by a Devonte Campbell three, putting Albany up double figures for the first time in the game.
- The Seawolves did not back down and put together a 10-run over a three-minute span, capped off by a three from redshirt freshman Akwasi Yeboah (Chigwell, England) to make it a three-point game.
- Stony Brook kept the difference within two possessions until the eight-minute mark. Woodhouse responded with four quick points to make it four-point game and later drained a three with 4:29 on the clock to get the Seawolves within two.
- A pair of free throws from Nyama with 3:41 remaining got the difference back to two, but that’s as close as the Seawolves would get the rest of the way.
Notes
- Woodhouse led the way for the 17th time this season with his ninth 20-plus point game. His three assists allowed him to match the program single-season record with 158 on the year.
- Stony Brook’s bench outscored Albany’s 17-6 in the game.
